n your pocket, but would not be easily duped by any designs
upon his own.

The companion of the personage thus sketched might be somewhere about
seventeen; but his gait, his air, his lithe, vigorous frame, showed a
manliness at variance with the boyish bloom of his face. He struck
the eye much more than his elder comrade. Not that he was regularly
handsome,--far from it; yet it is no paradox to say that he was
beautiful, at least, few indeed were the women who would not have called
him so. His hair, long like his friend's, was of a dark chestnut, with
gold gleaming through it where the sun fell, inclining to curl, and
singularly soft and silken in its texture. His large, clear, dark-blue,
happy eyes were fringed with long ebon lashes, and set under brows which
already wore the expression of intellectual power, and, better still,
of frank courage and open loyalty. His complexion was fair, and somewhat
pale, and his lips in laughing showed teeth exquisitely white and even.
But though his profile was clearly cut, it was far from the Greek
ideal; and he wanted the height of stature which is usually considered
essential to the personal pretensions of the male sex. Without being
positively short, he was still under middle height, and from the compact
development of his proportions, seemed already to have attained his full
growth. His dress, though not foreign, like his comrade's, was peculiar:
a broad-brimmed straw hat, with a wide blue ribbon; shirt collar turned
down, leaving the throat bare; a dark-green jacket of thinner material
than cloth; white trousers and waistcoat completed his costume. He
looked like a mother's darling,--perhaps he was one.

Scratch across his back went one of those ingenious mechanical
contrivances familiarly in vogue at fairs, which are designed to impress
upon the victim to whom they are applied, the pleasing conviction that
his garment is rent in twain.

The boy turned round so quickly that he caught the arm of the
offender,--a pretty village-girl, a year or two younger than himself.
"Found in the act, sentenced, punished," cried he, snatching a kiss, and
receiving a gentle slap. "And now, good for evil, here's a ribbon for
you; choose."

The girl slunk back shyly, but her companions pushed her forward, and
she ended by selecting a cherry-coloured ribbon, for which the boy paid
carelessly, while his elder and wiser friend looked at him with grave,
compassionate rebuke, and grumbled out,--"D